The Speed of Light
by CloudOnACloud
Summary: My name is Xander Raymont and I'm a conduit. Not a "bio-terrorist" or whatever the DUP has us labeled as. An accident freed me from my personal hell, now i have to do everything i can to make sure i don't end up back there. whatever the cost. rated T for some salty language and violent themes.
1. Chapter 1

**Just a quick note before you read; this is my first story, so I tried my hardest to make this as good as I possibly could, grammar and content wise. NOTE: this story will be mostly outside the infamous storyline, aside from some events from the games being spoken of and featuring the DUP. Welp, that's all I got. Enjoy! :D**

Chapter 1

 **Concrete Hell**

My name? Xander Raymont. My crime? Existing. What used to be my nightmarish personal hell has now become a sad reality I've almost convinced myself I'm just gonna have to live with. Almost. To this day, even with all the negativity running though my head, there's still a small corner of my mind that still clings to the possibility that I may someday get out of this prison… Guess that's something. Anyway, that doesn't change the fact that I'm completely powerless to change my current situation right now, laying on my side with both my arms and legs cuffed together with thick, metal handcuffs. Now, when you hear the word "handcuffs" you think of little metal rings that a kid like me could just easily slide out of, right? Well, these aren't your average handcuffs. These are almost half a foot thick, shaped like a big triangle, and practically weld your arms together, or in my case, arms and legs. I remember my first night here in this hellhole, when they first strapped these things onto me. I screamed and cried like a little baby the entire night, and continued to cry until my eyes refused to shed anymore tears… Which ended up taking about a year. It's a miracle I didn't get bludgeoned to death by the other prisoners within the first week, let alone until now. I honestly have no idea how long it's been since I first got here, the only indication I have is how much taller I've gotten and the quick glimpses of my reflection I catch in the shiny reflective surface of the operating table they tear us apart and put us back together on. Neither of which are that accurate to go off of. The "doctors" they have here are the creatures that inhabit my worst nightmares. Cutting us open and pumping us full of God-knows-what. But I've since started to grow numb even to that. Now I just lay here. Waiting until they decide to throw the revolting grub they classify as food here at me, or carry me off for another so called "check-up", or take off my cuffs and throw me out into the training area to see if I've grown any stronger or faster. That's the thing about me, I'm not like the others of my particular type. Other Conduits like me are fast, but not even close to as fast as I am. I can run a lap around the whole training room in the blink of an eye, a trait that that red-haired witch of a woman finds very, VERY intriguing. The thing is, despite the malnourishment and constantly having my legs chained up, I'm somehow slowly becoming even faster, and I can't even begin to wrap my mind around that. Anyway, even now, through these thick walls I can hear the explosions, blasts of energy, and grunts of effort from the training room. They moved me to the cell closest to the training area so there's less risk of me running for it before they throw me in and close the door, so I always hear the training sessions. I always position myself as close to the room as possible so I can hear it better. It's the only thing that can even loosely pass as entertainment here. Today it sounds like Augustine is putting one of the newer arrivals through her paces. Kinda weird to refer to her as that, considering she has to be at least 5 years older than me. She's only like me in one respect, we both control neon. Although she seems more along the lines of a "normal" neon conduit, or "Bio-Terrorist" as they like to label us. Augustine refers to her as "Abigail" but pretty much everyone else just calls her "Fetch". Why? I have no idea. But that's what they call her.

From the training area I can hear short bursts of action, followed up by long lulls of quiet. Weird. Augustine must be trying to get a backstory out of her, although I could already tell she was a druggy just by looking at her once. Although it would be pretty interesting to clearly hear what's going on behind this steel wall, I'm not superman. My hearing isn't THAT good. Wait… I hear someone else… and adult male standing just outside my cell. I can't quite make out the words, but he's stammering, almost like he's pleading for his life. That's when I hear it. A Scream. A shrill, ear-piercing, female scream. Not one of anguish, or of searing pain, but one of true, unrelenting rage.

Everything seemed to happen all at once, I felt extreme heat, enough to easily fry a normal human, jagged pieces of concrete and meal all over my body, then suddenly, a steady burst of cold air. After waking up, I bring my hands up to hold my aching head… wait… my hands?! I have to take a second look to even notice that my handcuffs were blown off and lying about ten feet away in about four pieces. That's when I notice it, two sets of cuffs laying in the rubble. I have to slap myself just to make sure I wasn't dreaming this. I was free. I quickly jump to my feet and stretch my aching arms and legs, which felt so good I barely even noticed that I was standing in snow. The snow felt cold and wet, easily soaking though the cheap prison slippers I had on, and my thin prison jumpsuit was no match for the bite of the cold mountain air. Any normal person would be miserable in these conditions, but I was way too busy looking up at the sun, marveling at how bright it was, and how good it was to see it again after so long. I was almost too pre-occupied to notice the DUP solders that were making their way around the rubble. Time seems to stand still. To my left, a small army of DUP soldiers. I'll probably be brutally detained just for standing up out here on the outside. To my immediate right, a broken fence that leads to a long drop, ground obscured by the windblown snow of an oncoming snowstorm. I'm not even sure if I could survive that fall, even with my conduit super healing. Everything moves in slow motion as I weigh my options, do I let them get me, and possibly never seeing the light of day again? Or do I jump, and risk my life on the off chance I can survive a drop off a huge mountain into what could be soft snow, or jagged rocks? The choice seemed all too easy once shards of concrete and bullets started whizzing by my head. "Here goes everything…" I mumble as I leap off the edge with everything my stiff and achy legs can muster.

 **Well? What did you think? Liked it? Great! Think it could be better? Leave me a review so I can improve it in some way! Hated it so much you can't help but sent me a review full caps-lock and swear words about how badly I portrayed the universe and ruined you're favorite series for you? Send your death threats to my dms! I probably won't read them! :D**

 **Haha anyway, I'd really appreciate it if you left a review, I do really want to get better at writing stories like this. Thanks for reading!**

 **-CloudOnACloud**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 **The Escape**

"Ow…."

That's the only word that could escape my lips as I laid in the snow at the foot of the mountain I had just jumped off of. Although, being in major pain on the ground is a lot better than being dead. Which is what any normal person would be if they tried to do what I just did, considering that the drop-off I gambled on had to have been at least three hundred feet deep. I would love nothing more than to get up and run away before the DUP gets here, but I have to wait until my conduit healing is done fixing my snapped legs. Yeah, I tried to land on my feet. I have to admit, not the best idea in the long run. Again, at least I'm not dead. The snowstorm that obscured the ground only moments ago is now keeping me from getting captured. It's probably keeping the DUP choppers from just coming down here and pumping my neon guts full of lead and concrete. Probably. I don't hear the helicopters right now, so that's a sign that I'm safe. For now at least.

"Did I make the right choice?" I sigh.

Should I just have let them detain me? Bring me back to my cell where I could live out the rest of my life behind bars? What am I going to do now? Wait here until I freeze to death? Can conduits even freeze to death? Questions like these flow through my head as I regain feeling in my now repaired legs. Great, I can walk again. Better yet, I can _run_ again. Just as I get in a running stance, another thought crosses my mind. _What if the DUP see the glow of my neon from all the way up there?_ I think. Splendid. Guess that means I'm walking. As you may expect, the ground is coated with freezing ice and my feet are already soaked, so walking to civilization is definitely going to be a challenge. Also, to make matters worse, I have no idea where I am. Assuming I'm even still in America, probably the Rocky Mountain region. That might mean I'm not too far from my home in Denver, Colorado. Not that I even want to go back there in the first place. What other states did the Rocky Mountains run through again? Wyoming? Utah? Montana? Guess a 5th grade education and several years of no education at all can only get you so far. If I'm ever safe again, I'm gonna have a mountain of homework to do.

I have to have been walking for at least 3 days now, judging from how many times the sun has set since I started. Pretty sure I've been heading north this whole time. Sun rises in the west, right? I still have no idea where I am, but if I just keep heading north I should hit civilization eventually. At least I think so. Being a conduit probably helps a bunch, considering I haven't had to stop once on this entire trek. Haven't even gotten hungry yet either, which is nice. I'm hoping that it will keep going like this until I hit a town or something of that sort. It would probably be best if I get there at night, because I don't see some kid walking around in an orange prison jumpsuit in broad daylight going over to well with the locals. Especially with a place like Curdun Cay so close. I don't like it, but I'll probably have to steal some clothes when I get there. It just wouldn't be smart to run around in these prison clothes. But if I get caught, that would only put me into an even worse position than the one I'm currently in.

"I'm not a criminal… and doing something like that would be super risky…" I tell myself

But doing this is going to be necessary if I'm gonna stay alive. So just this once, I'm going to have to steal. As if right on cue, I step into a narrow clearing with a paved road bisecting it. Perfect, now to follow this thing straight to the nearest town. Would it be ok for me to run now? I mean, a ball of pinkish-blue neon glowing as bright as the sun and moving faster than a speeding train isn't that conspicuous, right? I can only sigh as I continue trudging through the cold with my legs aching from lack of rest.

It isn't too much longer until that road had led me to a small town. Not quite a city, the roads were dead this late at night, but not the middle of nowhere either, there were a bunch of houses and shops lining the sides of the road, and all connecting roads. A few lights were on in some houses, but the vast majority of them were completely dark. It was the dead of night after all. Didn't take me too long to find exactly that I was looking for, a small clothing shop. It was one of those shops that had the extra story above it, probably because the people who ran it also lived there.

"Lexon family clothing store... hmm… security doesn't seem to tight and… aha..." I say to myself as I notice a window on the side of the building, and lo and behold, it's unlocked. Peachy.

I silently slide the window open just enough for me to slip through and have a quick look around. It's a nice place with shelves lined with neatly stacked shirts, pants, and other garments. There's a cash register in the corner by the main entrance but I won't be using that. It's not like the DUP give us prisoners an allowance. After quickly and quietly picking out a simple t-shirt, jeans, and a plain black hoodie, making sure to hold them up to myself for sizing, I make my way back to the window with my stolen goods in hand. That's about when everything went to shit.

On my way out the window, I bump my foot on the windowsill and trip myself up, landing face first on the icy ground. No snow to cushion my fall here. Ow. The pain of my surprise landing turned out to be the least of my worries as I heard soft footsteps coming down the stairs followed by what I could only guess was girl's voice as I rushed for cover.

"H-Hello..? I-Is someone there…?" I heard the girl say, voice shaking.

Silence.

She spoke again. "hm… guess I'm just hearing things again… eh? Why is this open?"

oh crap. She must have noticed the open window I left behind. I could only hold my breath.

"Well… must have left the window open again… stupid Elise… you know how mad dad gets when I forget simple things like that…" she spoke one final time before shutting the window.

I couldn't believe my ears. I breathe a sigh of relief as I realize that she didn't suspect a thing, and I'm home free! Well, not home free, that would imply that I had a home. Whatever! Free for the time being. I couldn't help but wonder what that girl was thinking, just brushing something like that off the way she did. Was crime not common here? Wherever "here" is? Doesn't matter, all I need to do is get out of here. Which with how much energy I had left, meant roughly a quarter mile away in an alley between two bigger buildings I didn't take the time to look at before falling to my knees from exhaustion of walking for so long. I was able to muster up enough energy to get myself changed, but I still had one final problem I had to deal with before I could rest for the night. Getting rid of the evidence. And by evidence, I mean this orange jumpsuit of mine. A jumpsuit that has obviously been used by me for quite a long time. It was dirty, there were a few blood stains from the experiments, as well as scuff marks and a few holes from the training. I could barely stand the sight of it anymore, so with the last of my energy, I sent a neon charge through it, vaporizing the cheaply made garment. With the burning of the jumpsuit, came the end of my life in that awful concrete hell.

I was free.

I was free.

I'm free.

Those words echoed in my mind as I finally gave in to my tiredness and fell asleep, leaning back against the cold, brick, wall.

 **Aaaaaaand there you have it! Chapter 2! I know not much happened in this chapter, but trust me, these first two chapters have just been setting the stage for the real story to begin! I'm so excited to really begin this long journey that I started planning so long ago.**

 **If you like what you see and want to see more, or see something that could be done better, please don't hesitate to give it a review, I'll read them all and give them all a fair amount of thought, good and bad.**

 **And with that, I'll be back again soonish with chapter 3!**

 **-CloudOnACloud**


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